The Truth About Agave

From Experience Life

Is agave nectar a healthy alternative sweetener or an overhyped sugar syrup?

The claim: Agave nectar has gotten some positive press for being better for you than sugar and many other sweeteners because it metabolizes more slowly. Food manufacturers who package and sell agave in the U.S. market also claim that it has been used medicinally by indigenous people in Mexico and Central America for centuries.

The reality: How fast or slow agave metabolizes depends on its level and method of processing. Derived from a starchy root, agave has been used in Central America for centuries, but not always as medicine. Indigenous people both fermented it to create an alcoholic beverage and also boiled it to make miel de agave, a reduction they used as a sweetener. But that sweetener, which was minimally refined and probably slower to digest as a result, bears no resemblance to the agave nectar now on most store shelves.

The fine print: The modern process for producing agave nectar is not unlike the process of converting corn into high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Most industrially produced agave syrup is processed with enzymes and other harsh chemicals that convert the starches into fructose, according to osteopathic physician and best-selling author Joseph Mercola, DO. The finished product, agave nectar, is 70 percent (or more) fructose, on par with HFCS.

Bottom line: If you’re avoiding added sugars, and especially fructose, don’t give commercial agave syrup a special pass.

Read more: Basics, Health, agave nectar

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

colleen p.

6:24PM PDT on Apr 12, 2012

but iittt isss humaineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

send a green star

Jennifer C.

6:12PM PDT on Apr 12, 2012

Thanks.

Sarah M.

5:39AM PST on Dec 3, 2011

What surprises me in all this talk is the misinformation about the agave plant itself, or, in particular, the American (meaning from the Americas not USA) agave, or maguey, itself. While only one type of this plant, the blue agave, is used in producing tequila, up to five different types are used in producing mezcal (another distilled alcohol) and at least as many for pulque, the fermented juice, which I personally from a many year residence in Mexico, adore. Therefore, the plant is not a monoculture, unless you are growing blue agave to make regulation tequila. Moreover, the plant does not flower once a season, but once in a lifetime (for which reason in English it is called the century plant) of somewhere between 12 and 30 years. However, the aguamiel (honey water) to make pulque is tapped before blooming, and the centres of the plant taken out for tequila taken before blooming as well. This is when the sap is at its best, and is used for liquid only at this time. Therefore pollination by bees is hardly necessary. In nature, the plant propagates through rhizomes in the dry soil in which it naturally grows. The beautiful high (20 feet or so) blooms may be seen growing naturally in the deserts of Northern Mexico and the South Western United States. Pre-Columbian peoples used the liquid to drink, both fermented and unfermented, reduced it into syrup, used the long fibres (ixtle) in its leaves for rope and cloth, its leaves sharp ends for needles, and -- not being vega

Michele W.

2:36PM PDT on Sep 5, 2011

Thank you

Robert O.

12:25PM PDT on Sep 4, 2011

Thanks Megan.

Elizabeth S.

11:33PM PDT on Jun 29, 2011

Ah, thanks for this. ^_^ It's a no wonder then that I have a hard time with this stuff. My body doesn't like it one bit. =P

Rebecca J.

4:43PM PDT on Jun 7, 2011

There is a lot to consider here and this is the first I've seen agave more thoroughly examined. Thank you.